There’s a slight problem with the latest effort to wring a few more dollars out of the Michael Jackson legacy. The new Jackson single that made its debut online Monday, “This Is It,” to mixed reviews, apparently is not an MJ song at all, but was cowritten by Paul Anka, who, yes, is still very much alive. At least alive enough to threaten legal action.

The string-backed ballad was released Monday on Jackson’s official Web site and sent to radio stations. It gives advance publicity to the documentary, culled from footage of Jackson rehearsing for the concerts that he never got a chance to do.

No sooner did the song hit the Web this morning than his former pal Anka recognized it as the exact same song he wrote with Jackson in 1983, “I Never Heard.”

Anka told The New York Times that he was never contacted about the usage of his work, and when he realized he wasn’t even credited as a writer on the song he told the paper, “They have a major, major problem on their hands. They will be sued if they don’t correct it.”

Anka and Jackson collaborated on the song in 1983, originally intended as a duet for Paul’s Walk A Fine Line album. But Anka claims MJ stole the tapes after they were recorded, and he had to threaten to sue to get them back (which he eventually did).

Could there be another reason album didn”t sell?

Speaking of mediocre material being released by misunderstood artists, “70s singing sensation Carly Simon is suing Starbucks Corp., saying the coffee company”s now-defunct music venture didn”t adequately promote her 2008 album, dooming the record before it was even released. Simon is seeking unspecified damages related to the release of the 14-track “This Kind of Love” in April 2008. In a lawsuit filed Friday with California”s Los Angeles County Superior Court, Simon and her attorneys said the album wasn”t available in “a substantial number” of Starbucks stores during the key early months following its release. Later, when the disc was stocked in Starbucks locations, the Seattle-based company slashed the price. “By doing so, Starbucks stigmatized Ms. Simon”s album as an album that could not be sold at full price,” according to the claim.